It has taken me a long time to write this post because I was really embarrassed. I was duped by my local quilt shop. But not really local in the 'close' sense of the word - I had driven 40 minutes to get there and I was very excited because it was 'Local Quilt Shop Day.' While I was there, I bought a few items, including this product that looked really amazing - an instant hot iron cleaner.

I didn't look too closely at what was inside the bag at the time - my only poor excuse must be that I was distracted by the fabric. I should have looked closer.

Because when I got home and opened my package of 'Bo-Nash Iron Clean,' the sheets looked and smelled suspiciously like regular dryer sheets.

Then I started thinking about the lady at the LQS who checked me out. She seemed very knowledgeable (I mean, that's the main reason I go to a local shop - to get answers that I might not find online). Did she know that I was paying $5 for 10 dryer sheets when I could get 40 for $1.50 at Walmart? And what about the other ladies shopping there? Was anyone smirking at the silly girl getting duped? Needless to say, I haven't bothered to drive 40 minutes to that quilt shop again.

But to be totally fair, I did my own 'Mythbusters' style experimenting so I could report to you my findings. I went to the above mentioned big-box store and bought an inexpensive box of dryer sheets. I picked entirely based on smell (something I liked), and I didn't have the 'Bo-Nash' brand with me so I didn't try to get the same smell.

When I compared the sheets, they were folded differently but they were exactly the same size and both looked like a thin sheet of pressed fiberglass.

This is what my iron looked like before I tried cleaning it. The surface was smooth with some brown stains - probably from starch.

I heated the iron and following the Bo-Nash instructions I placed a paper towel under the sheet and rubbed my iron over them along the edge of my ironing board. Nothing happened, except that the sheet melted a little bit. Nothing came off of the iron.

I had the same result with the dryer sheet. And no change to the iron.

What I did next proves my love to you - my readers. I cut off a piece of HeatnBond fusible web (the kind I use for appliqué) and ironed the shiny side on purpose - eeek! I have ironed the wrong side of my appliqué pieces on accident many times, but never put that yucky residue on my iron like this.

After a few seconds I wiped my iron on one of the dryer sheets (let's be honest now, they are both dryer sheets) and the sticky residue came right off! Now, that is a product worth having around.

I tried it on both sheets and it worked the same. The sticky residue left light brownish stains on the paper towels, but the dryer sheets still looked pretty good - a bit melted but still clean.

Then I tried it by sticking my hot iron to the fusible side of some fusible interfacing - another one of my forehead-slap habits. The sheets easily cleaned that residue too.

So if you use fusible products for appliqué or interfacing, I totally recommend that you grab a box of dryer sheets the next time you are in the laundry isle. Place one sheet next to your ironing board and the rest in your laundry room.

Disclosure: some of my posts contain affiliate links. If you purchase something through one of those links I may receive a small commission, so thank you for supporting SewCanShe when you shop! All of the opinions are my own and I only suggest products that I actually use. :)

Coming this fall!

Click and Pin for later!

Disclosure statement:

This policy is valid from 14 December 2011

SewCanShe is a sewing tips and tutorials website written and edited by Caroline Fairbanks-Critchfield (me) and my sister Beka. For questions about this website, please contact me at caroline@sewcanshe.com.

We accept forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, affiliate links, and other forms of compensation. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion, and identity. The compensation received may influence what we write about, but we choose which companies to work with and the opinions stated are our own.

Email privacy policy:SewCanShe.com collects email addresses for the purpose of sending our inspirational Daily Newsletter. We do not sell the email addresses we collect. Thank you for subscribing!

SewCanShe is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

We are committed to ensuring that our website contains content that is valuable and useful to our readers. To help us with this we have implemented the Google analytics demographics and interest reporting features on our website. These tools allow us to review anonymous data regarding the gender, age and interests of website visitors and adapt our website content to better reflect their needs. Although this information is collected through your Google ad settings, it is not provided to us in a personally-identifiable format. This means we cannot identify what information is about you, and we will not try to figure it out.